The Midrash relates that Moshe was distressed over having broken the Luchos, until G‑d said to him, “Do not be pained over the first Tablets, which contained only the Ten Commandments. The second Tablets that I will give will be accompanied by halachos, midrash and aggados.” Implied is that the extensive and multifaceted Oral Torah—“halachos, midrash and aggados”—was gifted to Bnei Yisrael only as a result of Moshe’s breaking the first Luchos.
How did such a negative event yield such positive results? The Torah is Divine wisdom. Therefore, like G‑d Himself, the wisdom of the Torah transcends any definition or limit. This infinitude is particularly evident in the Oral Torah. Whereas the Written Torah contains an exact amount of letters and words—even one extra letter renders a Torah scroll invalid—the Oral Torah is limitless: Aside from its myriad details, we are obligated to constantly extrapolate new details and applications of the law following the guidelines set out in the Torah, rendering the Oral Torah truly dynamic and endless.
The human being, however, is fundamentally finite and limited. As such, to merit and be capable of absorbing G‑d’s inherently infinite wisdom, even as it is manifest in the comprehensible teachings of the Torah, a person must utterly remove his own limited identity from the equation. Simply put, he must rid himself of any sense of pride or ego—not only before G‑d, but also before man. In the words of the Talmud, “If a man renders himself like a wilderness upon which everyone treads, his study will be retained by him; otherwise, it will not.”
Bnei Yisrael attained this sense of humility only after the humbling experience of the Golden Calf. When Moshe shattered the Luchos before their eyes, driving home the devastating reality of what they had done, they were utterly broken and humbled. Now, said G‑d to Moshe, I can finally bestow upon them the limitless gift of the Torah. Now I can grant them the halachos, midrash and aggados of the Oral Torah that will accompany the Second Luchos.
—Likkutei Sichos, vol. 26, pp. 249–253
